Monday, February 11, 2008 -- 10 a.m. -- on my couch

You might have seen the news late last week that Polaroid is killing off the Polaroid film format. Apparently, the instant photo can be better achieved through portable printers.

Fine. A piece of history is dead, yada, yada, yada. I recognize that. I've used a Polaroid camera in my lifetime. But like the 8-Track, it will soon be a footnote in life.

So ... is there a true substitute for the Polaroid that's not only fun but also hi-tech and profitable?

Oh yeah there is.

What if Apple installed instant photo centers at each Apple store houses with wireless printers and wireless purchasing via iPhones.

Here's how it works in my crazy mind:

1. You snap a photo on your iPhone.
2. You take your iPhone to any Apple retail store.
3. You push a button in the camera app that says PRINT.
4. Your phone is printed wirelessly to a wireless printer.
5. You purchase the photo via the purchasing software now built into the camera app and the amount is charged to your iTunes account (say 29 cents or 39 cents a print).
6. Voila. Instant photo.

I've had this idea for an iPhone mobile store where you can make a postcard, but this is just as good if not better ... this would allow each Apple retail store to provide a service where people who really enjoy printing photos could print them. And all Apple needs as far as infrastructure is technology it's already likely working on and a few wireless printers.

And while it's true that the era of digital picture frames and photo printers and services like Flickr and Picassa and iPhoto have made the printed photo less popular -- thus Polaroid's decision -- it doesn't mean that people don't like printed photos. They just want a fun and convenient way to get them. If Apple wants to, it could sell regular old Apple-designed picture frames for iPhone users' new masterpieces.

I think it's a great idea!! Tell me what you think. Apple doesn't accept unsolicited ideas, so I can't actually share it with them ... but if they ever do it or if you ever see it ... remember where you heard it first.

Thanks for calling.

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Off Topic (but iPhone related):

Have your friends and family learned that, in cold weather as we've been experiencing lately, they're likely to get your voice mail instead of you answering the phone? First, the phone is usually tucked into an inner pocket making it hard to hear or feel vibrate. 2nd, to answer would mean taking off one's gloves... and that
AIN'T gonna happen!
They have to learn that personal attention takes a back seat to frostbite prevention...

SCOTT'S REPLY: HA! I laugh because I felt my phone ring yesterday while walking to the bus and it was minus 2 degrees and I thought ... I can't possibly take out this phone now ... it will freeze solid.

No Scott, not a good idea. You can buy a portable printer for under a $100. If it is Pictbridge or bluetoothed enabled, you can print mobile photos any where.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yep, Vern, you sure can. But tell me this ... if you are on vacation in San Francisco and really wanted to print a photo to give to someone on the fly, how would you go about doing that? Would have take the portable Pictbridge printer out of your travel bag?

I definitely don't doubt that this can be done other ways... I'm just looking for unique ways to use the iPhone.

Printing photos? Do people still do that? :-P

SCOTT'S REPLY: I know ... it seems like they don't, but I know so many people that do.

Does Apple have any plans to EVER add the Outlook Enterprise software? The iPhone is largely useless to anyone that actually uses their phone for business.

Until then Curve > iPhone

SCOTT'S REPLY: I honestly don't know ... I do think Apple releases though that business users are left out the way the current e-mail system is set up with such a divide between personal and business.

Wait. You mean...printing photos? On paper?

How quaint!

:^D

SCOTT'S REPLY: But if you saw some presentations at CES, companies are still trying to make paper that lasts for like 10,000 years. Apparently there's still a market for paper. I just think that the iPhone as the high-tech polaroid could be cool.

Scott you are wrong. the iphone and you plan for it could never replace Polaroid. Polaroid was a truly unique medium that many artists are now losing. The polaroid and iphone are similar in the fact that they have both had a profound effect on society. However the new polaroid pocket size printer is even better than the technology you are describing (http://www.polaroid.com/onthego/). It is a shame the we have to sacrifice a great existing product to make room for these new technoligies. It is a shame that you would consider the iphone as a replacement for the once fantastic polaroid.

SCOTT'S REPLY: It's a shame that you didn't have the nerve to post your name so I could reply back to you.

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